First WSBK Double for Melandri and BMW

Cycle News Staff | July 22, 2012

BMW Motorrad’s Marco Melandri earned both his and BMW’s first World Superbike double-header sweep by adding a narrow victory in race two to his first race success at the Brno Circuit in the Czech Republic.

In both cases it Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes who came out on the short end. In the first race Melandri passed the Englishman on lap 19 of 20. In the second race the Italian waited until the final lap to pass Sykes, then outraced him to the flag by .140 sec. Althea Racing Ducati’s Carlos Checa was a distant third.

Melandri continued to close in on world championship leader Max Biaggi with his fifth win of the year. The Aprilia rider finished a lone fourth in front of teammate Eugene Laverty and lost nine more points. With ten races to go, Biaggi leads Melandri 271.5 to 250.5. Sykes is third with 212.5.

Unlike in the first race, when Melandri was cautious on a partially wet track, the Italian was quick out of the box and sat on Sykes starting on the eighth of 20 laps. Then it was a matter of watching and waiting, which he did until the final lap when he dropped Sykes to second.

Checa slotted into third on the fourth lap and held firm, with Biaggi doing the same in fourth from the sixth lap on.

Laverty narrowly held off ParkinGO MTC Racing’s Chaz Davies (Apr) for fifth, with Leon Haslam seventh on the second BMW at gap of .6 sec.

The gap to eighth placed Loris Baz was even less as the Kawasaki rider dropped from third in the first race.

FIXI Crescent Suzuki’s Leon Camier improved from 14th in race one to tenth in race two. Teammate John Hopkins improved only one spot, finishing the second race in 14th place.